Route details
Description
Not to be missed during your journey:
Echiré and its Coudray-Salbart castle, Chauray and its ancient Protestant temple, La Crèche and its islands of Candé, the Saint-Jacques-de-la-Villedieu chaplaincy of Pont de Vau, the Grand Moulin, Sainte-Néomaye and the mula bridge, the Hermitain valley, Azay-le-Brûlé and its old Ricou quarry, Saint-Maixent-l'Ecole and the abbey church, the quays of the Tanneries, the Coulée Verte along the Sèvre Niortaise, the Porte Châlon, the crypt of Saint-Léger, La Mothe-Saint-Héray and the Orangerie and its gardens, the Tanneries bridge, the Lady of Chambrille, the Abbot's mill and finally Bougon and its tumulus.
Your itinerary
Step 1: Coudray-Salbart Castle in Echiré
An impressive fortified castle attributed to the legendary fairy Mélusine, at the heart of the struggles between the kings of France and England, it controlled the crossing of the Sèvre Niortaise, the southern border of the lords of Parthenay-Larchevêque. It is classified as a 13th century castle. the best preserved in France and England. An architectural model for the time, it has unique features: 1 rooms in an exceptional state of conservation; pointed barrel vaults, ribbed vaults or dome pierced with an oculus; vast archer niches; sheath (corridor in the thickness of the walls) unique in Europe... Educational replica of a trebuchet (siege engine), self-guided tours (show up XNUMX hour before closing for the last one) or guided tours (school or not, all year round , by reservation), monthly activities for young and old.
Step 2: Saint-Gelais – Heart of the historic town
The V94 route crosses the historic heart of Saint-Gelais.
Before entering the village, a series of bridges spans the wash house, the arms of the Sèvre and the reaches of the two mills.
Around the lane of Cueille St-Jacques that the pilgrims walked are concentrated the listed Renaissance castle which already plunges us into the Loire Valley, the listed Romanesque church which offers us its harmony and a concentrate of architecture and the Protestant temple circular classified, unique of its kind.
The Futaie meadow and the banks of the Sèvres, opposite the castle, welcome you with their facilities for picnicking, walking and relaxing, fishing and playing. An educational and fun trail allows you to discover the highlighted natural spaces.
Step 3: The Temple of Chauray
In 1844, the town allocated part of the Protestant cemetery for the elevation of the building. Its construction was possible ten years later thanks to a municipal subscription, an extraordinary tax and a state subsidy. Its plan is clover-shaped. The temple was abandoned in 1970, but in 1988 the city obtained a financial commitment for its rehabilitation during the visit of the Minister of Culture François Léotard. Since 1989, the monument, managed by the municipality, has been a place for exhibitions and concerts. Its restoration dates from 1990.
Step 4: The islands of Candé to La Crèche
Discovery path in a natural area hugged by the Sèvre Niortaise. Fishing spot (trout, perch, pike, zander, carp, bream, etc.).
Step 5: The St-Jacques chaplaincy
The Villedieu du Pont de Vau suburb developed in the Middle Ages, close to the Pairé ford allowing crossing the Sèvre Niortaise. The history of its chaplaincy begins around 1400 when the squire Aimery de Magné, lord of Isle and Ste-Néomaye, had a country house built for himself where he stayed for the time necessary to manage his affairs, while the rest of the year, he remains in his castle. Wishing to ensure a comfortable afterlife, he bequeathed it to a religious community to receive pilgrims from St-Jacques de Compostela taking the secondary path Cherveux – Celles-s.-Belle. To complete it, the Countess of Crissé had a chapel built in the neighborhood in 1650.
During the Revolution, sold as national property, it became a residential house. It retains beautiful architectural elements and is managed today by the ADANE Association.
Step 6: The Grand Moulin
This old fulling mill (threshing mechanism), located between La Crèche and Ste-Néomaye, documented since at least the 1854th century, was enlarged in 1862. In 1869, a store was built serving as a dryer where the sheets received the last preparations. In 0,80, the site belonged to the Birault family. In addition to fulling, serge sheets and a coarse fabric, “boulangé”, are woven. With a drop of 1878 m, three paddle wheels set in motion six crushing piles, a crushing machine and two large traditional looms later supplemented by an English mechanical washer and crusher. Two dye works contain two and three vats respectively. One of the dwellings was rebuilt in 1929. It seems that the mechanical weaving activity ceased in 1960. Since the XNUMXs, the buildings have been transformed into housing.
In the 25th century, this mill employed XNUMX people.
Step 7: New Bridge of Sainte-Neomaye
The Pont Neuf, a 12th century mule bridge, is located on the old flour and salt road serving the mills that dot the Sèvre Niortaise valley.
The Haut Val de Sèvre was a major place for the production of mules and mules exported to Europe and the New World. Ste-Néomaye, a place of commercial transit, has hosted the mule fair since the 18th century, still famous in the 19th century.
About twenty meters long, initially placed on a paving stone (not anchored in the rock base and secured by its weight), it has six arches, all of a different model; washed away several times by the flood, certain arches were replaced and widened.
Step 8: Hermitain State Forest
This ancient ecclesiastical forest, made up of oaks and chestnut trees, is the last bastion of the “Sylva Savra” (Sèvre forest). Entering the fold of the State during the French Revolution, it is managed today by the National Forestry Office.
Go in search of the remarkable oak “Le Patriarche” with a circumference of 5,26 m. and 30 m. from above, the Font Querré fountain, the Lady of Chambrille (human-shaped rock), the "Devil's Stone" (on which the lovers loved to sleep and where, it is said, their imprint was printed where they left rest their heads) and the stele of the Parterre which evoke the clandestine Protestant assemblies in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. ; a story still marking the landscape of Haut Val de Sèvre and Mellois: umbrella pines, cemeteries in the gardens, temples.
Step 9: Former Ricou quarry: a soil “archive”
This Sensitive Natural Area and site of geological interest of approximately 5 ha is located on the right bank of the Sèvre Niortaise. It is made up of a quarry for extracting limestone used as construction material and stonework. It was still active on the eve of the Second World War. Between 2 and 1947, it experienced a short boom linked to the construction of the American base at Chizé. Its working face of more than 1953 m, recognized on a regional scale, illustrates certain geological periods by testifying to the presence of a sea thanks to ammonites in particular.
The seven natural habitats that make it up are home to remarkable flora and fauna, some species being protected (hairy teasel, plant; Thyme Blue, butterfly). The "L'Homme et la Pierre" network offers free activities there in the summer and by reservation all year round.
Step 10: A Benedictine abbey at the origin of a town
It was on the banks of the Sèvre that in the 1204th century, the hermit Agapit decided to build an oratory under the name of St-Saturnin (Christian martyr) which became an abbey in the 1736th century and encouraged the development of a town: St-Maixent, named after Agapit's successor. It prospered the following century thanks to Léger, the future bishop of Autun. Declared royal in 1790, it participated in the draining of the Marais Poitevin. Ravaged by a fire during the Wars of Religion, it was rebuilt in the 2009th century by the powerful Benedictines of St-Maur. The reconstruction was completed in XNUMX. In XNUMX, at the time of the civil constitution of the clergy, it became the short-lived episcopal seat of the newly created diocese of Deux-Sèvres and its abbey took the title of cathedral. From the end of the XNUMXth century to XNUMX, it was converted into a military barracks. The town also changed its name: St-Maixent-l'Ecole.
Step 11: The Tanneries quays
The district, located to the south of the abbey, on the edge of the Sèvre Niortaise diversion canal created by the monks, allowed, from the 3th century, the cleaning of skins, thus having a significant current of water. Because of its olfactory nuisances, the thirty tanneries, marginalized by the population, were established “outside the walls” of the city. Each had a shed, 4 or 2 pits, 3 or XNUMX tanks. Near the Charrault bridge, thirteen tan mills (use of bark powder to make skins rot-proof) were still operating at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. The two-story houses were used as skin dryers.
The 8 tanners all worked from home and supplied twenty-eight shoemakers. The last industry closed in 1889. Thanks to Mayor Camille Lemberton, who created a passage with stairs, this flower-filled haven of peace, the Quai des Tanneries, has since been accessible to walkers.
Step 12: Porte Châlon: the city’s emblematic monument
The old town gate was part of the stronghold of the Châlons (a powerful Saint-Maixent family in the 1750th century). It was destroyed in 1762, then the current one completed in 1999, a few meters behind by the Count of Blossac, intendant of Poitou, in charge of the new Poitiers-La Rochelle road. Integrated into a geometric urban ensemble, it marks the nerve entrance to the city, facing the road leading to Parthenay. It is erected as a triumphal arch connected by concave walls to two square pavilions crowned with a balustrade. It was restored in the 2004th century. Classified as a Historic Monument in 2006, it was renovated from XNUMX to XNUMX.
Originally intended to serve one for the distribution of military housing tickets, the other for the collection of tariff rights, they are used, in turn, as a town hall and for different administrative uses.
Step 13: The crypt and remains of the Saint-Léger church
6th abbot of St-Maixent, he became advisor to Queen Bathilde of Burgundy and Neustrie, then bishop of Autun. Captured by his enemy Ebroin, mayor of the Neustrian palace, he suffered martyrdom before being beheaded.
Sanctified, a cult develops. Three Passions were written, including the one commissioned by the Bishop of Poitiers, a relative of Léger. His relics, preserved since 684, in St-Maixent, in one of the oldest crypts in France, the Saint-Léger crypt, were transported to that of the abbey church. His sarcophagus will be desecrated during the Wars of Religion.
Near Niort, bone fragments from the only known reliquary (St-Léger-du-Bois, diocese of Angers) are given to the Ste-Marie-Madeleine church on the occasion of the abbey's millennium of St-Liguaire (founded by that of St-Maixent). “Liguaire” comes from “Léger”, the local dialect having distorted the name into “Léodogaire”.
Step 14: The Orangery and its French gardens
In the 1840th century, the medieval fortress was modernized as a residence by the Baudéan-Parabère family according to the plans of Nicolas Tillon, master mason of Richelieu. Purchased in XNUMX by an individual, the castle was dismantled.
Saved at the last minute from demolition, the Orangery, classified as a historic monument in 1925, became property of the municipality. In 1997, an ambitious work project began. Decorated with French gardens bordered by the grand canal, the site has regained its former splendor.
Its gallery, 46 m long, has since been converted into an exhibition space under a framework in the shape of an overturned boat hull.
In 2018, the Touraine artist Jean Vindras participated in the “Les Nouvelles Métamorphoses” festival by installing at the crossroads of the garden paths the “Dôme de la danse des couleurs”, an iron and enamel-colored stained glass alcove still in place today .
Step 15: The tannery bridge
In the 17th and 1716th centuries, certain fulling mills (threshing mechanisms) were transformed into flour mills. Half of these mills fall under the lordship of Mothe-Saint-Héray. There were still XNUMX on the Sèvre, in the commune, in XNUMX. They worked mainly for export to Niort, La Rochelle and Rochefort-sur-Mer. Tanneries, the manufacture of sheets and canvas, and the flour trade were for a long time the main activities.
The leather industry was very important in Mothe-Saint-Héray until the 21th century with 3 tanneries and 20 tan mills. Tan, XNUMX-year-old oak bark, is astringent. It tightens cow or beef hides and makes them rot-proof. After being tanned, they are wrought (softened) before being used by saddlers, shoemakers, beltmakers and gunsmiths.
Nearby, small private wash house.
Step 16: The Lady of Chambrille
It is accepted that the stream, crossing the mica schists, rocks that shine in the sun, received the name of “Champ Brille”, while its tributary took the name of “Ruisseau des Grenats” in reference to the semi-precious stone encrusted in the rock.
Formerly, near its source, stood the castle of Amaury which had a daughter of great beauty and whose hand was promised to Tutebert de Chambrille, baron de la Mothe-St-Héray. But, Berthe was in love with her young neighbor, Guy de Trémont. Their nocturnal absences discovered, Tutebert stabbed them in the moonlight. The lover petrified and became the rock that now bears her name. As for Guy, mortally wounded, he tried, in vain, to drag himself to his home. His drops of blood became garnets, pebbles carried since that time by the stream which dug the valley and which gave it its name.
Step 17: Moulin l'Abbé
Water mill created at the beginning of the 1700th century. on the edge of the Sèvre Niortaise by the abbey of St-Maixent. Tan mill in the 2th century. (use of bark powder to make the skins rot-proof), it was transformed into a wheat mill around 1920 and modified during the 1991nd quarter of the 1960th century. In 1988, the miller added a repeating flour mill, the mechanism of which was included in the supplementary list of Historic Monuments in 1991 (in perfect working order today). The cessation of activity dates back to the XNUMXs. His single daughter, Madeleine Gélin, gave him a life annuity to the commune of Mothe-St-Héray in XNUMX. Everything was practically abandoned. Since XNUMX, the establishment has been developed for tourist purposes. In addition to the flour mill, it hosts a permanent exhibition on the theme of geology and the Rosière museum.
Step 18: The Bougon Tumulus Museum
Experience Prehistory!
Explore the museum and discover the mounds built 2000 years before the pyramids of Egypt.
Modern architecture nestled in the heart of a natural setting, the museum offers a journey into Prehistory illustrating the first steps of Humanity, from our hunter-gatherer ancestors to the first farmers.
He is especially interested in the Neolithic period, a fundamental period in human history, during which he settled down and built imposing funerary monuments like those in the nearby necropolis linked to the museum by a discovery trail.
Built more than 6000 years ago, this exceptionally well-preserved necropolis is made up of imposing tumulus containing burial chambers (dolmens) accessible to visitors.